1

I just did a full upgrade on my archlinux and now for some reason I can't get

systemctl start tor.service

to run. I can use the tor browser without this, but I usually need this service up before using torsocks which I need for starting applications like irssi. So anyway, i'm getting the following message:

Output of systemctl status tor.service:

 × tor.service - Anonymizing overlay network for TCP
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/tor.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2021-04-27 20:32:40 MSK; 9s ago
    Process: 2864 ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/tor -f /etc/tor/torrc --verify-config (code=exited, stat>
        CPU: 22ms

Apr 27 20:32:40 username systemd[1]: tor.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Apr 27 20:32:40 username systemd[1]: Stopped Anonymizing overlay network for TCP.
Apr 27 20:32:40 username systemd[1]: tor.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Apr 27 20:32:40 username systemd[1]: tor.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 27 20:32:40 username systemd[1]: Failed to start Anonymizing overlay network for TCP.
lines 1-11/11 (END)

What gives? Why is this happening and how do I go about this problem? I've already tried reinstalling tor altogether but it didn't help.

EDIT

torrc:

## Configuration file for a typical Tor user
## Last updated 22 April 2012 for Tor 0.2.3.14-alpha.
## (may or may not work for much older or much newer versions of Tor.)
##
## Lines that begin with "## " try to explain what's going on. Lines
## that begin with just "#" are disabled commands: you can enable them
## by removing the "#" symbol.
##
## See 'man tor', or https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-manual.html,
## for more options you can use in this file.
##
## Tor will look for this file in various places based on your platform:
## https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq#torrc

## Tor opens a socks proxy on port 9050 by default -- even if you don't
## configure one below. Set "SocksPort 0" if you plan to run Tor only
## as a relay, and not make any local application connections yourself.
#SocksPort 9050 # Default: Bind to localhost:9050 for local connections.
#SocksPort 192.168.0.1:9100 # Bind to this adddress:port too.

## Entry policies to allow/deny SOCKS requests based on IP address.
## First entry that matches wins. If no SocksPolicy is set, we accept
## all (and only) requests that reach a SocksPort. Untrusted users who
## can access your SocksPort may be able to learn about the connections
## you make.
#SocksPolicy accept 192.168.0.0/16
#SocksPolicy reject *

## Logs go to stdout at level "notice" unless redirected by something
## else, like one of the below lines. You can have as many Log lines as
## you want.
##
## We advise using "notice" in most cases, since anything more verbose
## may provide sensitive information to an attacker who obtains the logs.
##
## Send all messages of level 'notice' or higher to /var/log/tor/notices.log
#Log notice file /var/log/tor/notices.log
## Send every possible message to /var/log/tor/debug.log
#Log debug file /var/log/tor/debug.log
## Use the system log instead of Tor's logfiles
Log notice syslog
## To send all messages to stderr:
#Log debug stderr

## Uncomment this to start the process in the background... or use
## --runasdaemon 1 on the command line. This is ignored on Windows;
## see the FAQ entry if you want Tor to run as an NT service.
#RunAsDaemon 1

## The directory for keeping all the keys/etc. By default, we store
## things in $HOME/.tor on Unix, and in Application Data\tor on Windows.
DataDirectory /var/lib/tor

## The port on which Tor will listen for local connections from Tor
## controller applications, as documented in control-spec.txt.
#ControlPort 9051
## If you enable the controlport, be sure to enable one of these
## authentication methods, to prevent attackers from accessing it.
#HashedControlPassword **removed**
#CookieAuthentication 1

############### This section is just for location-hidden services ###

## Once you have configured a hidden service, you can look at the
## contents of the file ".../hidden_service/hostname" for the address
## to tell people.
##
## HiddenServicePort x y:z says to redirect requests on port x to the
## address y:z.

#HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/hidden_service/
#HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80

#HiddenServiceDir /var/lib/tor/other_hidden_service/
#HiddenServicePort 80 127.0.0.1:80
#HiddenServicePort 22 127.0.0.1:22

################ This section is just for relays #####################
#
## See https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-relay for details.

## Required: what port to advertise for incoming Tor connections.
#ORPort 9001
## If you want to listen on a port other than the one advertised in
## ORPort (e.g. to advertise 443 but bind to 9090), you can do it as
## follows.  You'll need to do ipchains or other port forwarding
## yourself to make this work.
#ORPort 443 NoListen
#ORPort 127.0.0.1:9090 NoAdvertise

## The IP address or full DNS name for incoming connections to your
## relay. Leave commented out and Tor will guess.
#Address noname.example.com

## If you have multiple network interfaces, you can specify one for
## outgoing traffic to use.
# OutboundBindAddress 10.0.0.5

## A handle for your relay, so people don't have to refer to it by key.
#Nickname ididnteditheconfig

## Define these to limit how much relayed traffic you will allow. Your
## own traffic is still unthrottled. Note that RelayBandwidthRate must
## be at least 20 KB.
## Note that units for these config options are bytes per second, not bits
## per second, and that prefixes are binary prefixes, i.e. 2^10, 2^20, etc.
#RelayBandwidthRate 100 KB  # Throttle traffic to 100KB/s (800Kbps)
#RelayBandwidthBurst 200 KB # But allow bursts up to 200KB/s (1600Kbps)

## Use these to restrict the maximum traffic per day, week, or month.
## Note that this threshold applies separately to sent and received bytes,
## not to their sum: setting "4 GB" may allow up to 8 GB total before
## hibernating.
##
## Set a maximum of 4 gigabytes each way per period.
#AccountingMax 4 GB
## Each period starts daily at midnight (AccountingMax is per day)
#AccountingStart day 00:00
## Each period starts on the 3rd of the month at 15:00 (AccountingMax
## is per month)
#AccountingStart month 3 15:00

## Contact info to be published in the directory, so we can contact you
## if your relay is misconfigured or something else goes wrong. Google
## indexes this, so spammers might also collect it.
#ContactInfo Random Person <nobody AT example dot com>
## You might also include your PGP or GPG fingerprint if you have one:
#ContactInfo 0xFFFFFFFF Random Person <nobody AT example dot com>

## Uncomment this to mirror directory information for others. Please do
## if you have enough bandwidth.
#DirPort 9030 # what port to advertise for directory connections
## If you want to listen on a port other than the one advertised in
## DirPort (e.g. to advertise 80 but bind to 9091), you can do it as
## follows.  below too. You'll need to do ipchains or other port
## forwarding yourself to make this work.
#DirPort 80 NoListen
#DirPort 127.0.0.1:9091 NoAdvertise
## Uncomment to return an arbitrary blob of html on your DirPort. Now you
## can explain what Tor is if anybody wonders why your IP address is
## contacting them. See contrib/tor-exit-notice.html in Tor's source
## distribution for a sample.
#DirPortFrontPage /etc/tor/tor-exit-notice.html

## Uncomment this if you run more than one Tor relay, and add the identity
## key fingerprint of each Tor relay you control, even if they're on
## different networks. You declare it here so Tor clients can avoid
## using more than one of your relays in a single circuit. See
## https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq#MultipleRelays
## However, you should never include a bridge's fingerprint here, as it would
## break its concealability and potentionally reveal its IP/TCP address.
#MyFamily $keyid,$keyid,...

## A comma-separated list of exit policies. They're considered first
## to last, and the first match wins. If you want to _replace_
## the default exit policy, end this with either a reject *:* or an
## accept *:*. Otherwise, you're _augmenting_ (prepending to) the
## default exit policy. Leave commented to just use the default, which is
## described in the man page or at
## https://www.torproject.org/documentation.html
##
## Look at https://www.torproject.org/faq-abuse.html#TypicalAbuses
## for issues you might encounter if you use the default exit policy.
##
## If certain IPs and ports are blocked externally, e.g. by your firewall,
## you should update your exit policy to reflect this -- otherwise Tor
## users will be told that those destinations are down.
##
## For security, by default Tor rejects connections to private (local)
## networks, including to your public IP address. See the man page entry
## for ExitPolicyRejectPrivate if you want to allow "exit enclaving".
##
#ExitPolicy accept *:6660-6667,reject *:* # allow irc ports but no more
#ExitPolicy accept *:119 # accept nntp as well as default exit policy
#ExitPolicy reject *:* # no exits allowed

## Bridge relays (or "bridges") are Tor relays that aren't listed in the
## main directory. Since there is no complete public list of them, even an
## ISP that filters connections to all the known Tor relays probably
## won't be able to block all the bridges. Also, websites won't treat you
## differently because they won't know you're running Tor. If you can
## be a real relay, please do; but if not, be a bridge!
#BridgeRelay 1
## By default, Tor will advertise your bridge to users through various
## mechanisms like https://bridges.torproject.org/. If you want to run
## a private bridge, for example because you'll give out your bridge
## address manually to your friends, uncomment this line:
#PublishServerDescriptor 0

#freenode
mapaddress 10.40.40.40 freenodeok2gncmy.onion

Output of journalctl -xeu tor.service:

The job identifier is 2289 and the job result is failed.
May 01 23:46:06 username systemd[1]: tor.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
░░ Subject: Automatic restarting of a unit has been scheduled
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░ 
░░ Automatic restarting of the unit tor.service has been scheduled, as the result for
░░ the configured Restart= setting for the unit.
May 01 23:46:06 username systemd[1]: Stopped Anonymizing overlay network for TCP.
░░ Subject: A stop job for unit tor.service has finished
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░ 
░░ A stop job for unit tor.service has finished.
░░ 
░░ The job identifier is 2363 and the job result is done.
May 01 23:46:06 username systemd[1]: tor.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
May 01 23:46:06 username systemd[1]: tor.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
░░ Subject: Unit failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░ 
░░ The unit tor.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
May 01 23:46:06 username systemd[1]: Failed to start Anonymizing overlay network for TCP.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit tor.service has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
░░ 
░░ A start job for unit tor.service has finished with a failure.
░░ 
░░ The job identifier is 2363 and the job result is failed.
6
  • Do you get any output from journalctl -u tor@default? Can you also post your torrc file (/etc/tor/torrc)?
    – Steve
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 0:25
  • @Steve I've updated the question with everything I could thing
    – Trey
    Commented May 1, 2021 at 21:05
  • Thanks for adding that. You haven't posted the tor log yet though which will tell you what the error is. Your torrc file has the line Log notice syslog, so you should check your syslog (I don't know where Arch stores this, so you'll have to look it up) for the tor error messages.
    – Steve
    Commented May 1, 2021 at 21:34
  • @Steve I looked it up, and it seems there's only journalctl unfortunately
    – Trey
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 4:02
  • @Steve Also I found this forum.manjaro.org/t/… but I don't have a /usr/lib/tor folder so I tried changing the ownership of /etc/tor to the tor user, but it didn't work either
    – Trey
    Commented May 8, 2021 at 4:45

1 Answer 1

1

Ok it seems that pacman was the culprit here, not tor.

I had a torrc.pacnew file which was causing the problem. I managed to fix it by doing the following:

mv /etc/tor/torrc.pacnew /etc/tor/torrc

Then I just added my personal configurations to the file

1
  • 1
    It doesn't solve the problem for me, I didn't have the torrc.pacnew file and I am still getting the same error
    – cnikbesku
    Commented Nov 22, 2021 at 1:56

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